


Keep Your Distance

by Sapph



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Genderswap, Hydra (Marvel), female Grant Ward
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 07:12:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1931508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapph/pseuds/Sapph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is born a beautiful little girl with dark hair and dark eyes. Her parents call her Grace, after her grandmother. As she grows older her gaze turns golden, but she never feels precious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep Your Distance

She is born a beautiful little girl with dark hair and dark eyes. Her parents call her Grace, after her grandmother. As she grows older her gaze turns golden, but she never feels precious.

 

She meets Garrett when she is fifteen, in an alley behind the bar she is working at. It isn't the nicest neighbourhood, but it's better than the place she left behind. There's a party in full swing and she just stepped out to get some air. She thinks he's just another creep who wants to chat her up, but he makes her an offer she can't refuse. Forty bucks to seduce some information out of one of the attendants. She says sure and figures that even if she fails at least she can keep half of the money.

 

It is almost laughably easy to get the man to talk, he's already drunk and all she has to do is lean across the counter and pretend to be interested. He boasts and exaggerates, but she easily picks out the lies from the truth -she has always been good at reading people.

 

Garrett looks surprised at the amount of intel she has gathered. She asks him why he wants it, he tells her that's classified. It's almost cool, she muses, like one of those spy movies her little brother had been so fond of. There is strange glint in his eyes however, and when he shows up three weeks later, she isn't surprised. The man who has her pressed against the wall, however, is. He pulls away startled and she sees his eyes widen before his brain explodes out of the back of his head.

 

Garrett takes his jacket off and wraps it around her shoulders. She doesn't even question where he's leading her, just follows in a state of shock. When she's sitting on the bed at his motel, freshly showered but shaken up, he hands her a cup of tea and makes her another offer.

 

She says _yes_ and no one messes with her again.

 

After picking up some of her things, he takes her to an isolated cabin in the woods and for a moment she regrets coming with him. But he's kinder to her than her father ever was and his eyes don't hold the sick gleam her older brother's used to.

 

For roughly a month, they spend almost every minute together. He teaches her to hunt, how to set traps and strip the meat off her prey, which plants are edible and which are poisonous. He shows her how to fend off an attack, which spots to strike to take your opponent down, and how to approach a target without being spotted. She's eager to learn, tired of feeling like a helpless little girl. In the evening, when her muscles burn with exertion and her eyes threaten to drift shut, he tells her stories about his time with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. She listens carefully and files it all away.

 

Asking him for sanitary supplies when she runs out is the most awkward thing she's ever had to do. He's confused, then amused, and she fails to hide her embarrassment. He tells her it's nothing to be ashamed of, even apologizes for forgetting she's a grown woman. He drives her to the store the following day, and she averts her gaze shyly when the woman at the register tells Garrett he has a beautiful daughter. To her surprise, Garrett laughs and replies he's well aware. It makes something warm stir in her chest, something that feels a lot like hope.

 

A couple of days later he tells her he needs to head back, that S.H.I.E.L.D. has given him another mission. She's anxious at first, uncertain of her skills, but he merely pats her shoulder and tells her she'll do fine.

 

It's not easy. There's little food left in storage. It would take her half a day to get to the nearest store on foot and she has no money to pay for anything anyway, so she rations what she has and goes out hunting almost every other day. Sometimes she comes back empty-handed, the weight of the hunting rifle heavy across her back, sometimes she returns with the blood of her kill still on her hands and the taste of vomit on her tongue, but she survives.

 

He comes back three months later though he promised to be back in one. She's angry and she lets it show. It's the first time he hits her. The back of his hand connects with her cheek with a sickening thud and she looks up at him through her lashes, shocked and apprehensive. He just shakes his head, his expression unreadable, and walks straight back out the door.

 

The following morning, he's sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee, a wrapped package in front of him, complete with a bow. He doesn't apologize, but points at the box with a grin.

 

“For you,” he says. She holds it between the tips of her fingers as if it's a bomb and sequesters herself in her room, grateful when he doesn't follow. He bought her a book, one she's never heard of, but she reads it dutifully and find herself enjoying it, it's a small piece of luxury out here in the wild.

 

It becomes a tradition every time she steps out of line. He buys her books in foreign languages, some come with CD's, and when she asks, he finds her an old CD-player. When he's gone, there is little else to do than practice or read. Her aim has improved greatly over the months and hunting is no longer as taxing as it was at the beginning. Her stomach has steeled against the sight of animal corpses as she cuts into them with a knife and carves her dinner.

 

Sometimes she wonders how her sister's doing, or if her old friends ever miss her -sometimes the loneliness is as vast and confining as the forest that surrounds her.

 

When she turns sixteen Garrett gives her a puppy and tells her to take care of it. She names him Buddy and he never leaves her side. For two years she feeds and trains him, and gets used to his comforting presence.

 

When she turns eighteen Garrett tells her she's been accepted into the Academy. She's happy, relieved almost, until he hands her a gun and tells her to take care of it. She curls one hand in her best friend's fur, a cold metal grip shaking in the other, and refuses. He yells at her then, and for the first time in ages, she's afraid. He takes notice of her fear and his eyes seem to soften, though the dangerous gleam doesn't fade. He tells her neither of them will be able to return for quite some time and Buddy won't survive on his own. She convinces him to take Buddy to the shelter, but as she watches them drive away, she wonders-

 

But she has no time to speculate, for they leave early in the morning. She's more nervous than she's ever been, her head spins and her spine feels as if it's made of steel. He puts a hand on her shoulder and guides her through the corridors of the place she will call home for the next four years. He visits sporadically, but not enough for people to start calling favouritism.

 

She is unused to the attention she receives; the whistles her curves attract and the allure of her reserved, almost aloof, attitude. People are quick to call her beautiful and she learns to use it to her advantage.

 

She works hard, pushes herself to new extremes. She excels at all of her classes but makes few friends, eliciting both praise and concern from her instructors. Still, when Garrett voices his approval, she's proud of what she's achieved.

 

When she graduates there is no great celebration. He tells her to wear something nice and treats her to dinner. It's almost like old times, she muses, except classier.

 

She makes her way up the ranks quickly, first as his specialist and then on her own. She is meticulous in everything she does, ruthless if need be, and finishes her missions at all costs. If there is one thing Garrett has taught her, it's that there's no room for failure.

 

When she's pulled out of Paris and assigned to the small ragtag team Coulson's putting together, she knows her presence there is important. She will make Garrett proud no matter the cost

 

-she owes him that much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
